Grand Tour of The Wirral : 22nd January 2016

Grand Tour of The Wirral : 22nd January 2016

Although there had been a high tide on the Dee Estuary, it wasn’t particularly high (8.8m) and it had been at 9.48am and we didn’t get to our first stop until around 10.30am. Be that as it may we wanted a day out and I suggested a round trip of some of our regular haunts : New Brighton, Hoylake, West Kirby and Burton Mere Wetlands. It was interesting to visit these sites at a relatively low (and receding) tide but we were not sure if it was going to be a bit of a wash-out or not. As it happened we had some nice additions to our new year list.

At New Brighton we took a look at the Marine Lake pontoons and got a nice collection of Redshank, Dunlin and Turnstone but no Purple Sandpipers.

We moved on to Hoylake which was better than expected and there were large numbers of birds on the tide line. This was a bit far out because the tide had been fairly modest and was on the way out but there were still large numbers of Dunlin and Oystercatchers, SHelduck and Curlew as well as very many Gulls. I even thought I could make out Grey Plover and Knot but they were so far out I couldn’t in all honesty add them to my year list – yet !

From there we went on to West Kirby looking for the Great Northern Diver but couldn’t find it. However, we were able to add Red-breasted Merganser to the year list. There were a number of other waders there but nothing out of the ordinary.

We briefly stopped off at Little Neston where I had read that there were good views to be had of the marsh from the Harp Inn which sits right on the marsh and has a small grassy patch in front of it which affords a splendid view. Unfortunately the food was off due to the cook’s father dying. The beer wasn’t particularly good either but it was an interesting place and there was obviously a path through the marsh at low tide as walkers and dog walkers were using it. There wasn;t much water at this stage but I did get a nice flock of Meadow Pipit for the year list.

We left there and thought we would have a quick look at Burton Mere Wetlands and, in the end, stayed quite a while and went as far as Burton Point. Contrary to expectations and the experience of only a few days before, it was extremely quiet and the Long-eared Owl was not showing at all. It was getting late so we decided to beat the Friday night traffic and get going. It had been an interesting day and it showed that high tide is not the only time it is worth going to various sites on the Wirral.

Bird Sightings : New Brighton

Bird Sightings : Hoylake

Bird Sightings : West Kirby

Bird Sightings : Burton Marsh

Bird Sightings : Burton Mere Wetlands